Adhesive bandages are well known for their tenacity and excellent adhesion to the skin. They are widely used in the form of small packaged combinations of adhesive tape and sterile gauze, and are commonly applied by medical personnel in the form of sterile pads or gauze over the wound or sore, held in place by the adhesive tape which is wound or cut to cover both the sterile gauze and the nearby skin.
An unpleasant side effect of the excellent service of adhesive tape is the painful step of removing it. Breaking the bonds of adhesion to the skin is not the only source of pain; if there is hair on the skin under the adhesive tape, which is quite common, the hair also adheres to the tape and is pulled--sometimes pulled out by the root--when the tape is removed.
In spite of the widespread use of adhesive bandages and adhesive tape for medical purposes, very little attention has been paid to the problem of alleviating the infliction of pain when the bandages and tape are removed. This is so also in spite of the fact that adhesive solvents and removers are known in other contexts.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,193, an adhesive and enamel remover is described containing d-limonene, certain dibasic esters, and N-methyl pyrrolidone. The composition is suggested for removing adhesive residues and enamels from various building surfaces and the like.
D-limonene is combined with tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol in U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,294, an all-purpose cleaner containing d-limonene is described in U.S. Pat. 4,620,937, and a skin cleaner containing d-limonene is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,062. A small amount of lanolin is included with a limonene in a hydrocarbon base in U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,674 (Re29,649.)
While d-limonene has been known for use in general cleaning compositions and has been shown to be relatively safe for humans (see, for example, the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3;933,674 which suggests use of its particular composition for removing the residues of dental impression materials--col 2, line 22), the art has not seen the advantages of using d-limonene in a composition for removing adhesive tape from human skin.